How are we to understand the cost, value and quality of university-based professional learning and development? This BERA Research Commission has examined the role of universities in professional development, focusing especially on teacher education and medical education. What can the medical profession and the teaching profession – and the two sets of educators who train them – learn from each other? What evidence should be used to evaluate the cost of professional learning in universities, as well as the benefits that come from this kind of close engagement between academics and practitioners? 
The Research Commission’s aim was to test the assumption that teacher educators and medical educators can learn from each other, and that both communities can benefit from learning from economists, in developing more sophisticated modelling and producing better evidence for the cost, quality and value of university-based professional development. Through seminars, presentations at symposia and conferences and ongoing activities, the Research Commission has scoped out a future research agenda in this area, and brought together a Community of Inquiry to take it forward.